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Life-Size 3D Holograms Bring Us Closer to 'Teleportation' [VIDEO]

Will life-size holograms of your colleagues and friends be the new norm? The Human Media Lab of the Queen's University in Canada says yes.

Researchers were inspired by Star Trek-like teleportation to create the TeleHuman cylindrical telepresence pod. A long tube is outfitted with six Microsoft Xbox Kinect sensors, a convex mirror and a 3D projector. The TeleHuman pod lets users "teleport."

Their image is beamed to another translucent cylindrical pod with a 3D projector. TeleHuman makes it so people can walk fully around the 3D image when talking.

This technology allows full interaction between people in different places. They can talk and interact as if face-to-face. The team says it's the closest thing to zapping into thin air and traversing space.

The image created by the TeleHuman is not your average hologram. The Human Media Lab team takes it to the next level by incorporating more control and "human-scale" interaction. Natural face-to-face "gaze and eye contact" are preserved in the process. Other natural components of conversation researchers kept intact include the 360-degree motion of the bodies, fluid movement and the realistic image size.

TeleHuman, created by Roel Vertegaal, is highly recommended for your next in-office video conference. Watch the above video to see why.

Another application of the 3D-projection technology is the BodiPod. The team also created the BodiPod application, which projects a full-scale, 360-degree model of the human body. Individuals can stand in front of the life-size image and use in-air gestures, pointing and moving forward and back to study human anatomy using the model.

Would you consider using life-size holograms for company meetings? Sound off in the comments.

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